Residents line up for COVID-19 testing in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province on Feb 22, 2022. Photo: VCG

Wuhan tested more than 720,000 residents after a latest outbreak registered a total of 23 COVID-19 cases in three days. 

All nine new infections found from Tuesday noon to Wednesday noon were found in quarantine and were close contacts of confirmed cases. Seven of the new infections were trainees of a cosmetics staff training session, Wuhan local authorities said at Wednesday's press conference. 

Since the outbreak emerged on Monday, Wuhan has screened out more than 147,000 people who were exposed to the epidemic. As a result, 663 close contacts and 3,018 secondary close contacts were put under quarantine. More than 720,000 residents underwent nucleic acid tests, local authorities said. 

On Tuesday, the hotel in Wuchang District as well as the block of a residential building in Jiangan District where the training session was held were labeled as high-risk areas for COVID-19. The districts are now under a closed-loop management, the Wuhan municipal anti-epidemic command center announced. 

A notice released by the Hubei provincial government said the staff training was held by Nu Skin Enterprises -- a US skin-care marketing company.

COVID-19 infections related to the training were also reported in Beijing, Qingdao, and Shijiazhuang.